


Third Time's The Charm

by Topographical_Map_Of_Utah



Series: Along Came Baby [21]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Again, But The Kind That Actually Happens, Childbirth, Domestic, Finn Reminds Him That He Can't Bake, Finn is a nerd, Finn's such a good dad, M/M, Modern AU, Mpreg, Poe Attempts To Bake, Poor Poe, They're Having A Baby!, Trans Poe Dameron, who is raising a tiny nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-15 08:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9226262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topographical_Map_Of_Utah/pseuds/Topographical_Map_Of_Utah
Summary: So Poe's been pregnant for awhile. I think it's about time they got around to actually having the child.





	

"Well, this is new." Finn smiled as he bounced into the kitchen, laughing when he saw Poe standing at the counter. There were measuring spoons, cookbook, an apron straining to cover his baby bump, the whole shebang. Finn had been surprised when walking through the door he and the kids had been met with the smell of something baking. Aiden had nearly started drooling and Shara had dropped her backpack on the floor in shock. What the hell was Poe doing in the kitchen? 

"You look like you've seen a ghost, sweetheart." 

"'Course I do. Man, I knew babies did weird things to your system, but this is something else..." 

"Heck off. I felt like smelling chocolate so I melted a cup, then I realised that I needed to do something with it, then I figured I might as well eat something, then-" Poe sighed as the stack of sticky, floury, chocolatey bowls and cups sitting on the counter clattered into the sink. Presumably those were left over from his less than successful attempts. "Well, then I fucked up."

"At least you gave it a shot." Finn pressed a kiss to Poe's ear and wrapped his arms carefully around his chest. He had learnt during their first go around that a couple days before the due date Poe got sore and ticklish and itchy all over. The itchy and ticklish, they could deal with. The soreness was the real issue. Finn liked to give really tight hugs.

"Ease up, pal. Else you're gonna squeeze the kid out." Poe grunted. "I feel like I've had to say that before."

"Sorry." Finn loosened his grip, but he really wasn't all that inclined to pull away. Aside from being cuddly Poe smelled warm and buttery and sweet from his attempt at baking. A little bit like burnt sugar too, but Finn was electing to ignore that. "So what's the news from the front?" he hummed into Poe's neck. "Leia sent you home, didn't she?"

"Yeah. Apparently two pregnant people on staff is one too many. And Jess won at rock paper scissors. So here I am." 

"Thank God for Leia." Finn traced his hands down Poe's sides, kissing the back of his ear and maybe rutting against him a little bit. What? Twenty-four hour shifts leave a man kinda lonely.

"Happy to have me all to yourself, are you?" 

"When am I not?" For a moment it seemed as though Finn just might get some action at some point tonight. Then the little bit of sensuality they had managed to stir up dissipated when Shara piped up down the hall. Oh, right. Parenting.

"Papá! Where's the-" And then there was some Spanish that Finn couldn't understand. Poe yelled something back and the kids both laughed in delight. Finn would really like to be in on the joke. 

"Teach me something." he said on impulse, giving Poe a pleading squeeze.

"I teach flight formations, not languages." Poe insisted. But he relented when Finn started to press wheedling little kisses to his neck. "Alright, alright. Let's see what we got..." He glanced at the messy counter and shrugged, scooping up one of the measuring cups that he had accidentally dropped in the bowl of flour and butter. "Let's start small, I guess. Easy. Think you can say _azúcar?_ Means sugar." 

"Azu..." Finn trailed off and smiled sheepishly. Maybe he had overestimated his skills a little bit. "You got something easier?"

After five minutes of pointing out eggs and spoons and bowls and having Finn butcher each word, Poe puffed out his cheeks with a sigh, frustration building in his chest. Obviously something was being lost in translation, here. Now this was just ridiculous.

"I think I got this one, Poe. Couch pillow?" 

"No, for fuck's sake. _Cuchillo_. Look, here it is in a sentence:  _Si no dejas de ser un idiota, te apuñalaré con este cuchillo."_

"I dunno what you just said, but I'm pretty sure you just threatened to stab me."

"Wow. You're not unteachable after all." Poe said flatly.

"Steep learning curve. Okay, I got this. Cue cello?"

"No, _cuchillo_." God help him if Finn fucked up one more time. Poe had reached the end of his rope, here. Ten years of teaching and his own husband would be the student who made him snap. Go figure. "Look, it's easy. _Cuchillo_ , got it?"

"Chinchilla?" 

_"Cuchillo!"_

\-------

 

Aiden blinked and looked up from the Play-Doh dragon he was building. It was bright blue and wearing a striped bow tie. He had spent maybe a bit too long on it, but just a bit. "Shar? Why's Papá yelling knife at Daddy?" 

"I think it's because Papá's mad at Daddy." Shara said sagely, burrowing out from under her pillow fort and watching her brother try and figure out how to make dragon wings. After some fruitless puzzling he scrapped the idea and started to make a jetpack, instead. "It's Daddy's fault Papá's all puffed up and slow, y'know."

"How's it Daddy's fault?" Aiden's eyes were bright with curiosity and he stared hopefully at Shara. "I wanna know, Shar. Did Daddy stick a balloon in Papá's belly? Did Daddy feed Papá too many cookies? What'd Daddy do, Shar?"

"Well..."

Answering that was a daunting task, even for Shara. Hopefully her information would be accurate. Kindergarten had offered her many a differing opinion pertaining to the origin of babies. Some classmates cited storks, others angels. One particularly imaginative kid swore up and down that there was a store in Times Square which sold them, five bucks a pop.  

Of course, she knew about the seed and the egg, but there were still so many questions. What kind of egg? Because a month ago she had taken a chicken egg out of the fridge and put it in a shoebox with a sunflower seed she had picked out of a granola bar. She had expected to open the box the next day to find a brand new baby waiting for her, but all she got was a stern talking to from Papá about leaving raw eggs in her bedroom. So all in all, she was very confused.

"I don't think I can explain proper." she admitted. Boy, that was hard to do. "Maybe we should ask Daddy and Papá some time. They must know how to get babies."

"How do we know they know?"

"Because they did it three whole times and they didn't mess up once. They must know. And it's not like you can make babies on accident."

"Really? I was an accident." Aiden revealed, casual as anything.

"How d'you know that?"

"Papá was talking on the phone to Tía Jess and that's what he said. But it's okay." Aiden added, giving his big orange teddy bear a squeeze. "He said I was a happy accident." 

 

\-----------

 

"Forget it. I give up. Monolingual for life." Finn decided.

Poe didn't even bother arguing, instead just resting against the counter and nodding as Finn stuck the cake tin in the oven. After a lot of arguing about linguistics and Finn taking over the baking when Poe forgot about how important eggs were in the recipe, throwing in the towel seemed to be the best course of action for the both of them.

"Yeah, best stick to our own lanes. You bake and I'll talk. Let me help though, would you? I feel useless..."

"No need. I'm done. You can ice it later. Besides, I need to apologise for nearly giving you an aneurysm."

"That you do." Poe yawned and shrugged, absently reaching back and dragging his fingers through Finn's curls as he was pushed out of the kitchen and back onto the couch. Clinginess aside, it was nice having Finn around more often. He had taken the weekend off, bookended with the Monday and Friday he usually got anyways. After Shara and Aiden had both decided to come out early, he was taking no chances with this one.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Getting sorta cramped in there." Poe rubbed circles on his belly and sighed as Finn put on the superhero movie they had been watching, fast forwarding to the bit where Bruce Banner drove in on his motorcycle. When they were comfortably installed on the couch with Poe's twelve pillows (Finn called them "pregnancy pillows") arranged comfortably around them Finn let Poe lean back against his chest, not minding the weight because it meant he could feel the baby kicking. Which it did, a lot.

"I know you're enjoying this, but I hope you know my friggin' insides are bruised." Poe grumbled. 

"Sorry. But it's just a day or two left, right? What d'you want to name him?" he smiled into Poe's neck, voice quiet under the soundtrack and the hum of the busted up old radio that was perpetually playing on the counter. Mostly classical, because Finn was convinced that made genius kids, but Poe occasionally managed to sneak something a bit more fun in there. A stray Bonnie Tyler song couldn't set the kids' development back too far, now could it?

"Dunno. Whose turn is it?"

"Yours."

"That's not fair, then. You only got to name one."

"You carried the kids." 

"But I'd feel bad anyways. And I'm not giving you any blackmail material. You're never gonna have any leverage on me, pal." Poe promised. "So what do we do?"

"Do we combine the names we want, maybe? I'm thinking something like Optimus..." Before Poe could protest they were caught off guard by the sudden avalanche of stickers and scraped knees and sticky fingers, also known as their children.

"You're watching Avengers without us?" Shara demanded, climbing over Finn's lap with a pout. Actually, this gave him an idea.

"What d'you kids think the baby should be named?" he asked. Poe grinned at him and Finn nearly sighed in relief. Looks like Poe thought he had made a good decision. Wow, that was rare.

"We already know what the baby's named, Daddy. The baby's name is Peanut." Shara reminded him. Aiden nodded in agreement, nuzzling up to Poe's stomach with a happy sigh. He had no qualms whatsoever about using Poe as a space heater.

"That's the baby's _nickname_. We need a name. To go on the birth certificate and things like that. Official stuff." 

"Me and Shar get to pick?" Aiden glanced at Shara and broke into a smile. It was uncanny, how these two could go back and forth without even opening their mouths. After a minute of silent deliberation Shara nodded solemnly and turned to her parents, Aiden grinning at her elbow. Apparently a decision had been made.

"Sam."

"Why Sam?"

"Well, if Peanut's like Papá we don't want the officially stuff to be complicated." Shara provided. "If we name 'em Sam then Peanut won't gotta cross the old name off of all their homeworks and hand it in again with the right name. I know a girl named Sam, and I know a boy named Sam. And Falcon's real name is Sam, and Papá's a pilot like Falcon Sam, so we should name the baby Sam after Papá, but mostly after Falcon. Because Falcon's really cool."

Finn blinked, trying to catch up with her little spiel. Her teacher didn't call her "creative" for nothing.

"I know a dog named Sam." Aiden added, once he could get a word in edgewise. "He's black and grey and his fur is soft."

"Yeah. Sam's good. And then the next baby can be Nat, and the baby after that can be Bruce, and the one after that-"

"Whoa there. This's the last one, kiddo." Poe interjected, settling Shara back down in Finn's lap. She had started to bounce up and down, making Aiden sway on the cushions beside her. She always did that when she got excited.  

"What?" Shara sounded completely taken back. "But that's not enough to make the Avengers! I need maybe five more brothers and sisters. Then we can be the Avengers and it'll be great." she sighed, looking back at the TV screen and watching longingly as the Hulk smashed Loki into the ground. "I wanted to be the Avengers..."

"If we're going by comics we'd need to have at least a hundred." Finn mumbled in Poe's ear. "Give or take a few dozen."

"No." 

 

\--------

 

"What d'you think Papá and Daddy's busy doing?" Aiden asked. Shara shrugged, kicking out her legs and squirming on the squeaky yellow chair a nurse had set her down in an hour ago. She didn't like the chair. It smelled funny, like baby wipes and sick people. The whole hospital smelled like that, actually.

"Playing video games. Papá yells at Daddy when they play video games." Shara reasoned. Aiden nodded thoughtfully and went back to scribbling all over his colouring book, trying very hard to stay in the lines. He was having limited success. As Shara watched him carefully shade in a daisy a guttural yell ripped through the hallway, coming from the room Finn had disappeared into two hours ago. They both jumped at the chilling sound. There was something feral in it, something their combined eight years of living couldn't quite understand.

"Video games?" Aiden winced again and looked up at Shara, holding half of his crayon. The other half had snapped off and rolled across the room. The kid was easy to spook. "Who d'you think's winning?" 

Shara pursed her lips and Aiden clapped his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out another yell. "Daddy. Daddy's winning."

 

\--------

 

"Why can't Papá play with us?" Aiden asked, petulantly holding out his teddybear when Finn came out into the hall. Poe had given him the boot when Finn pulled out a Kit-Kat bar and forgotten to offer some to him. Even though Dr. Kalonia had been wearing a mask, Finn could tell that she had been holding back a smile at Poe's nearly comical outburst. At least now he could look after the kids they already had.

Aiden and Shara had been running up and down the hall of the maternity ward for the past hour, incurious about what their Papá was doing, apparently. He felt bad for having to keep them here, but babysitters were hard to come by at two in the morning. Why did these kids always pop out at the most inconvenient times?

"Well..." Finn glanced at the delivery room, trying to think up an answer that wouldn't make Aiden freak out. "He's busy." Behind the door Poe yelled something vulgar and Finn coughed. "Really busy."

"You're not busy. Can you tell me a story?" Aiden asked, hopping up into Finn's arms and letting himself be carried over to the waiting area. Shara was curled up in one of the rickety chairs, eyes buttoned shut. Finn settled down with Aiden on the couch beside Shara and ruffled her hair, smiling. She looked like Poe when she slept. They had the same crease between their eyebrows.

"So, once upon a time..." Aiden was looking up at him expectantly and Finn took a deep breath, wondering what he should say. "Once upon a time, there was a family of four foxes who lived in a caramel apple tree."

"I've already heard this story." Shara complained with a yawn, dragging herself upright and giving Finn's arm a shake. She had waken up to judge him, of course. She really was Poe's daughter.

"This is a different story."

"No, it's not. Only thing different's that there were three foxes." she sighed, nuzzling against his arm like he was a pillow.

"Then it's the sequel."

"What's a sequel?" Aiden asked.

"It's Hollywood's way of making us give up all our hard-earned money. Now do you guys want to hear this story or not?" After a couple guilty giggles and a lot of squirming the kids both found their way into Finn's lap. Shara curled up for another nap but Aiden stayed awake, smiling up at Finn. Shaking his head, Finn cuddled them both closer and went on with his story. 

"Right. So once upon a time there was a family of four foxes who lived in a caramel apple tree."

"What were their names?"

"Um..." Finn glanced at the vending machine in the corner and nodded. "Kit and Kat. The big foxes were named Kit and Kat. The other two were named Little Fox and Littler Fox."

"I remember Little Fox. How'd they get Littler Fox?" Shara mumbled into Finn's collar. Was she sleeping or what?

"If you quiet down you'll find out. So in the first story, Kit, Kat, and Little Fox were waiting for a gift from the magical wish-granting stork. It was all going well, but then, while the stork was flying back to their caramel apple tree, a big mean bluebird attacked him and the gift he was carrying."

"A bluebird?" Aiden laughed in disbelief. "But bluebirds are nice!"

Yeah, and seeing squad cars was supposed to make Finn feel protected. "Not all bluebirds are nice." he warned. "Just because it's a bluebird doesn't mean it's nice. See, some forest creatures didn't like the foxes, and the bluebird was one of 'em." He ran a hand through Aiden's hair and sighed as Aiden stared in wide-eyed fixation. "The bluebird thought the foxes were dangerous, just because they were foxes. Even though they hadn't done anything wrong, the bluebird felt like it was okay to hurt them, just because he was scared."

"That's not okay." 

"It really isn't." Finn agreed. "The bluebird chased the stork for a very long time, until the stork had no choice but to hide the foxes' gift and run away. When they found out what had happened the two big foxes went looking for the gift that the stork had hidden for them, even though they knew it was so dangerous. See, the gift had been hidden in the Haunted Woods, where nobody ever went. So even though Kit and Kat were so scared, they separated and spent a long time searching. They fought dragons, warlocks, angry apple trees. Kit was captured by the mean bluebird and put in the dungeon of an evil goblin king, but his friends helped break him out."

"What type of animal were Kit's friends?"

"Falcons." Finn decided. "Kat had it worse, though. A witch cursed him so that every step he took hurt him, hurt him so badly that most people-or foxes-would have just given up on the search. But Kat was stubborn. So stubborn, in fact, that he found the hidden gift first. The spell broke, and he sat down by the box to wait for Kit."

"Did Kit ever come?"

"Yes. One of the falcons carried him there." Aiden laughed and Finn squeezed him tight. "They opened the gift together. Inside, to their surprise, there was another baby fox."

"What'd they name it?" Finn looked down and realised that Shara was awake, too, looking up at him with sleep-soft eyes.

"Littler Fox." he said plainly. "They brought Littler Fox home to their caramel apple tree, and Little Fox was very happy to have another fox to be friends with. Kit and Kat were both okay, the stork promised that it would come visit them again someday with another gift, and they all lived happily ever after. The End."

Aiden just nodded, satisfied, but Shara had wrinkled up her forehead, thinking about something.

"Littler Fox." she repeated softly. "And this baby's gonna be Littlest Fox?" Finn nodded and kissed the top of her head. He had known the metaphor had been pretty heavy-handed, but still. That was a pretty in-depth reading, for a six year old.

"I guess he is."

 

\----------

 

"Why'd you leave?" Poe demanded, sitting up with a frustrated growl. His skin was flushed with sweat and his whole body was trembling, his knuckles white on the rails of the bed. Something told Finn that his husband was not having a fun time.

"Because you kicked me out." Finn reminded him. Poe screwed up his face and Finn immediately felt bad, reaching out to unstick the curls from Poe's forehead and trying to ignore the veins pulsing under his skin. "How're you doing?"

"I can't-" Poe choked on his words and shook his head as Finn took his hand. "I can't do this, Finn..." A little shiver ran through Finn as Poe's voice cut off in a dry sob. "It hurts so fucking much." 

"You can. I know you can." After swallowing as much of his own fear as he could Finn pressed a kiss to the crown of Poe's head, trying to be encouraging. "And watch your language." He smiled when Poe mustered up the strength to punch him. There, that was a bit more normal. 

"Ow. Ow ow ow _ow_..." Poe struggled through another contraction, cussing and panting and crushing Finn's hand in his. As it died down Poe slumped back with a grunt, sweat dripping down his forehead and chest heaving with short, laboured breaths. 

"Why'd it..." Poe bit down on his lower lip, waiting for the next contraction with his eyes squeezed shut. "Is something wrong? "

Kalonia pulled back with a shrug, casting an unconcerned glance at the monitor. The steady beeps coming from it didn't seem to trouble her. "Oh, he's fine. He's just taking a break." 

_"Taking a break_? Who said he could do that?" as he asked Poe scrambled up onto his elbows with a grunt, glaring down at the stretched front of his hospital gown with an exasperated look on his flushed face. "Hey, get back to work in there. I swear, if he's fallen asleep..." 

"That might be the case." Kalonia admitted.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Poe groaned. In an attempt to help Finn poked at Poe's gut, see if he couldn't wake the kid up, get things going again. He was also trying very hard not to laugh. Poe could tell, and he did not seem to appreciate that. "Fuck off, Finn. Shit. Ouch. Fuck. If he's not gonna come out can we just go home? I wanna go home, now." Poe pleaded. "C'mon, Finn. We were in the middle of Titanic and-shit."

"Guess we're back in business." Poe punched him again and Finn laughed. "At least he's not kicking during contractions. Shara did that, remember?"

"Don't give the parasite any ideas." Poe's voice went up a good octave at the end of that sentence and he cried out, throwing his head back and tightening his grip on Finn's hand. "Get it out, get it out,  _get it out_."

"He's coming out, don't you worry." Kalonia assured him. "Finn, you want to catch, right?"

"Poe has to let me go, first." Finn tried pulling, and after a minute he managed to pry Poe off of him and make his way to the foot of the bed. This time, Finn knew better than to look down into the thick of things. Instead he just rubbed Poe's knee, watching and hoping and fearing, mind going a million miles an hour as Poe cursed and shivered through what had to be one of the more uncomfortable moments of his life.

There was a sudden flurry of activity from the staff and for a moment Finn panicked, wondering what had gone wrong and not understanding why Kalonia guided his hands downwards and nearly gasping when something wet and heavy and crying slipped into them. Honest to God, Finn almost dropped the baby in surprise. That would have been unfortunate. 

A snip on the umbilical cord, a weigh-in, a quick vitals check, and then Finn was holding their son in his arms, towelling him off almost robotically because he hadn't quite processed yet, the plaintive wail in his ears, the fragile little life he had just bundled up in a blue and orange blanket and settled on Poe's chest. Then Poe's exhausted smile brought him back to earth and Finn managed to muster enough concentration to kiss him on the cheek. Words were still out of reach, though.

"Hi, baby." Poe managed as he gave their kid a squeeze, voice hoarse and cracking. The little guy hadn't opened his eyes yet, seemed to be making a conscious effort to keep them squeezed shut. Likely he thought that this was all a bad dream. Finn would think so too, if he were in that position. Being born must be something like getting yanked out of a nice cosy bed without fair warning. One second everything is warm and dark and quiet, then suddenly you're wet and cold and these big scary blobs are grabbing at you. No wonder the first thing babies do is cry.

"Why isn't he opening his eyes, d'you think?" Poe whispered after a moment, worry barely audible in his voice.

"Maybe he's scared. I know I'd be. C'mon, kid. We don't bite." Finn coaxed, holding his breath while the baby squirmed and whimpered. As they watched, their son ventured a peek, blinking in the light of a world he didn't quite understand. It seemed strange, the two of them being the first thing he would see. Then again it was kind of fitting. He must know how much they cared about him, must have come to realise over the past nine months that he was surrounded by so much love. The wondrous pats from Shara and Aiden, the lullabies Poe would sing to him during storms because he was convinced he could hear, it all must have seeped into that warm little nest of his, let him know that it would be okay, stepping out into the light, that he would be okay.

Whatever the reason, when Sam Dameron opened his big brown eyes to see his parents smiling at him, he didn't screw up his face and cry; he smiled right back.

"Nine and a half pounds. No wonder he needed to take breaks. That's a lot to move." Kalonia laughed.

"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Poe looked down at the benign little bundle searching his chest for a place to nurse and sighed, nudging Sam helpfully towards his nipple. "You're already trying to kill me, huh? Well, I'm tougher than that, kid. Nerves of steel, got that? Give Iron Man a run for his money." 

A smile spread across Finn's face, listening to Poe ramble on. It took more effort for the guy to keep words in than it did for him to think up something to say. The inside of his head had to be the loudest place on the planet. Then Sam squeaked and Finn turned all his attention to him, smiling when he latched on, lips clumsy and grasp fumbling. Shara's curls, Aiden's eyes, the soft amber of Poe's skin and a familiar face, one that he saw every time Poe pulled out those battered pictures of Finn as an infant. So this was Sam. The sum of their parts and something all his own, too.

"You're incredible, Poe. A fucking miracle worker." Finn pressed a kiss to Poe's cheek, smiling when Sam made the softest little noise, like the wind sighing between the branches of an oak tree. He would be a happy baby, Finn was sure of it. Poe sniffled a bit and Finn rubbed at the tears on his cheeks. "You want a hug?"

"From anyone but you." Poe mumbled, smiling as Finn wrapped an arm around him. Then he shifted, screwing up his face and glancing warily at Kalonia. "Wait, there's still the placenta, isn't there?" When she nodded Poe sighed, turning to Finn with a scowl on his face that clearly conveyed what he wasn't about to say in front of an infant.

Finn couldn't help it. He laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> MayGlenn I know you said you were kidding but I'm crediting you for Sam's name and TuppingLiberty's getting credit for the Shara and Aiden name the baby idea. Basically all the ideas came from other people XD


End file.
